Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-06-13
THE HEAVENS OPENED.
A Peep into that Gallery Where God
Has Gathered the Chief Treas
ures of His Realm.
The Deepening Twilight Of Earth's
Night Only the Opening Twilight
of Heavens Morn.
Christ will be Present at tho Christians
Deethbed and Darkness will Go
Out-A Grand Prophecy.
special to the Gazette.

BROOKLYN, n. Y June l2.-This morn
inc st the Tabernacle the Rev. T. Dewitt
Tslmage, D. D., expounded appropriate
passages Of scripture, after which the
congregation sang the favorite hymn
There is rest for the weary" The
reverend DOCTORS text was Acts, vii. So
10: "Behold see the heavens opened,
sud the Son OF man standing on The right
hand of God. Then they cried out with
S loud voice and stopped their ears, and
rsn upon Him with one accord, and cast
Him out of the city, and stoned Him; and
the witnesses laid down their clothes at a
Young mans feet, whose name was Saul.
and they stoned Stephen, calling upon
God and saying Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit. And he knneled down and cried
with loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin
TO their charge. And when he had said
this, he fell asleep" The preacher said ::
Stephen had been preaching a rousing
sermon, and the people could not stand
i. They resolved to do as men some
times would like to do in this day, if
they dared, with some plain preacher Of
righteousness-kil him. The only way
to silence this man was to knock the
breath out OF him. So they rushed Ste
phen out of the gates of the city, and with
curse, and whOOp, and below, they
brought him to the cliff, as was the Gus
tom when they wanted TO take away the
life by stoning. Having brought him to
the edge of the cliff, they pushed him off
After he had fallen they came and looked
down, and seeing that he was not yet
dead, they began
TO DROP sToNKs UPON HIM,
stone after stone, stone after stone
sf,3o min, - c.,
pnen chambers up on his knees and folds
MS hands, while the blood drips from his
temples to his cheeks, from MS cheeks to
his garments, from his garments to the
ground; and then, looking up, he makes
TWO prayers-one for himself and one for
MS murderers. lord Jesus, receive my
spirit" that was for himself. "LorI,
lgy not this sin to their CHARGE" that
was for his ASSISTANTS. Then, from pain
and loss of blood, he swOoned away and
fell asleep.
I want to show you to-day five pic
lures. Stephen gazing into heaven.
Stephen looking at Christ. Stephen
stoned. Stephen N his dying prayer.
Stephen asleep.
First, look at Stephen gazing into
heaven. Before you take 8 leap you want
TO know where you are going to land.
DtlOLG YOU CillnD IhuOeI you WduL 10
know TO what point the ladder reaches.
And it was right that Stephen, within
few moments of heaven, should be gazing
INTO it. We would al do well to be
found in the same posture. There Is
enough in heaven TO keep US gazing. A
man of large wealth may have statuary
n his hall, and paintings in the sitting
room, 9nd works OF art in all parts OF the
house, but he has the chief pictures in
the art gallery, and there hour after hour
you walk with catalogue and glass and
ever increasing admiration. Well, heaven
is the gallery where God has gathered
the chief treasures of His realm. The
Whole universe is His palace. In this
lower room where we stop there are
many adornments: tesseIlated floor of
amethyst and blossom, and on the wind
ing cloud Stairs are stretched out canvas
On which commingle azure and purple
snd saffron and gold. But heaven is the
gallery in which
THE CHIEF GLORIES ARE GATHERED.
There are the brightest robes. There
are the richest crowns. There are the
highest eXhilarations. John says of it:
The kings Of the earth shall bring their
honor and glory into iU.' And l see the
procession forming, and in the line come
al empires, and the stars spring up into
he arch for the hosts to march under
They keep step to the sound of earth
quake and the pitch of avalanche from
the mountains, and the flag they bear is
the flame of s consuming world, aud all
heaven turns out with harps and trumpets
snd myriad voiced reclamation of angelic
dominion to welcome them in, and so the
kings of the earth bring their glory and
honor into it. Do you wonder that good
people often stand like Stephen, looking
into heaven? We have q great many
friends there. There is not 8 man in this
house to-day so isolated in life but there
Is some one in heaven with whom he
once shook hands. As a man gets
older, the number of his celestial &C
qusintances very rapidly multiplies. We
have not had one glimpse of them since
the night we kissed them goodbye and
they went away; but still we stand gazing
al heaven. As when some of our friends
90 across the sea, we stand on the dock, |
Or on the steam tug, and watch them, and
sitter awhile the hulk of the vessel 6isap-
pears. and then there is only patch of |
sail on the sky, and soon that is gone,
and they are all out of sight, and vet we |
stand looking in the same direction; so |
when our friends 90 away from Us into
the future world we keep looking down |
through the NarrOWS, ana gazing and /
gazing as though we expected that they
would come out and stand on some /
evening cloud, and give us one glimpse .
Of their blissful and transigured faces. |
While you .ong to Join their companion
snip, and the years and the days go with |
such tediUm that
THEY BREAK THEIR HEART,
ana the viper of pain, and sorrow, end !
bereavement keeps gnswing at your vi /
tsls, you still stand, like Stephen, gazing .
into heaven. You wonder il they have /
changed since you saw them last You .
wonder II they would recognize your .
face now, so changed has 1t been with .
trouble. You wonder il, amid the myriad (
delights they have, they care as much for .
you SIS they used TO when they gave you
helping hand and put their shoulder un-
der your burdens. You wonder if they
look any older; and sometimes in
the evening tide when the
house is all quiet you won
der if you should call them by their first
name if they would not answer; and per-
maps sometimes you do make the expert
and bnt ol nd